


Strong in the real way

by PetitOrage



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Human Names, M/M, Minor Character Death, Romance, Teacher Francis, implied - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 12:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4436225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PetitOrage/pseuds/PetitOrage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Celal (TRNC) observes his father, and his attempts at finding love in the person of his son's teacher, Francis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strong in the real way

Celal Adnan is barely six years old, but he still happens to know quite a lot of things regarding the world of adults. Things that he learns as the days go by, and that with them, life follows its path, slowly, surely, and yet, at a speed that makes him feel dizzy. Things that often leave him absolutely baffled, and that he still has trouble understanding, but, as Baba puts it, it'll all certainly come in time.

Baba is currently the most important person in Celal's life. Baba is tall, strong, nice, he laughs a lot, cooks really well, and often sings in the bathroom – which is, to Celal, an obvious proof of one's humanity and benevolence. He protects Celal from the dangers of existence, and grants him food, toys, affection, and many useful tips so that he can learn to, someday, be as strong and amazing as he is. Tips that Celal can't help but gorge at every given occasion.

Baba has a loud, gruffy voice that can be a bit scary, sometimes, but more often than not, it's actually really soft. Soft like the butter cream that Celal fills his mouth with every time the baby-sitter comes by to make pastries for dessert. Baba knows how to lull Celal like nobody can, with beautiful songs in a language that he doesn't yet know, but that Baba knows by heart, about cows eating a cabbage, a child falling down from a donkey, and an uncle bringing him sweets to comfort him.

Celal doesn't have an uncle, but he hopes that if he had one, he'd bring him sweets too.

Baba isn't always the strongest, or even strong at all, and Celal knows it. Baba can be scared, too, sometimes. He's scared, or sad, or stays silent for hours, barely moving, and it's a bit scary. But most of the time, Baba is really happy, and during the best days, the ones that Celal likes the most, Baba grabs him by the legs, and takes him into his big arms, or even on his shoulders, and spend wonderfully long minutes carrying him around the house, running, while making all sorts of happy, silly noises, before getting into a big tickle fight. Fight that is always followed, obviously, by the defeat of Commander Baba, who collapses on the bed with an agonizing gurgle, and funny faces, and then allows Celal to bury him under a mountain of stuffed animals and action figures.

Those are the most dear, privileged moments of Celal's life. The ones that he's sure to remember his whole life long, with a tenderness that he hopes will never, ever fade away.

However, recently, things have changed. Oh, of course, nothing major or overly important – Baba still loves Celal, and Celal still loves Baba, and the life is as good as it used to be at home. But, things have changed. Celal started school, the real one, not the one for babies, and he had the occasion to make himself a group of good friends, ones that he wouldn't switch for the world. He still happens to feel lonely, or to stay on his own, sometimes, during breaks, but Baba assures him that it's normal, that he felt that way, too, when he was little, that he didn't speak a lot and had trouble understanding people. Celal doesn't know if it's true, but he sure hopes that it is.

He also had the occasion to meet a wonderful teacher, very different from Baba, but at least just as nice, and almost as strong as he is. Celal calls him Teacher, or Mister, depending on the occasion, and sometimes the teacher will laugh and gently correct him, by telling him – and the other children – to call him Francis, instead.

Last time, Celal got confused, and called him « Mister Teacher Francis », which made him laugh a whole lot. Baba laughed, too, but not for the same reasons. According to him, « Francis » isn't a name for first grade teachers, but for old baker uncles, dressed in red flannel shirts and who paint watercolors on their free time. Which didn't make much sense to Celal – bakers don't wear flannel, they wear white aprons.

Later, however, Baba finally met Mr. Francis, during a parents/teachers meetings, and promptly changed his judgement. Or at least, that's what Celal got from it, because Baba didn't really say much. Or anything at all, really. Mr. Francis was the one who spoke. He said that Celal was making big progress, and that his writing skills were excellent for a kid his age. Baba just nodded, a few times, with a very serious face, much more than usual. When they finally left the room, he let out a deep, long sigh, and his facial expression finally relaxed. He then began talking (although rambling would be a much more fitting word) about Mr. Francis, all evening long, asking Celal questions about whether or not he knew if he was married, or what kind of food he liked the most – and when Celal started showing signs of tiredness, Baba immediately jumped to the phone, and called his entire group of friends. Erzevet, Kiku, Herakles, Gupta, all of them had to go through it, and though Celal didn't hear much of those conversations, they must have been quite fascinating, because Baba spent _hours_ talking.

A few months later, Celal has almost completely forgotten the incident, for as we all know it, children's brains only ever remember the extremely important things of life. However, he's forced to remember when Baba tells him that Mr. Francis is going to come soon, but not to see Celal, to see Baba. Which, he has to admit, puts Celal through a whole lot of confused thoughts. Teachers don't spend their free time talking to adults, do they ? Teachers are here to teach children things. Adults don't need teachers, they already know everything.

That night, Celal is sent off the bed a bit earlier than usual, at 8:30 pm, instead of his regular 9:00 pm, and cannot seem to find sleep. His favourite plushie, Ploum, doesn't help him relax, and even when he switches her for his other favourite plushie, a giant replica of Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc, he still doesn't achieve sleep. So he decides to come down, to go and see Baba.

Baba has always had a load of « magic » recipes to shoo away Celal's frequent insomnias and nightmares. Those recipes more often than not include a big cup of hot tea, lots of honey, a big hug, and sometimes a little song, to put the cherry on top. But this time, and Celal realizes it even before leaving the stairway, this time, he can forget about his cup of tea.

Baba and Mr. Francis are talking. Not about him – he's hearing a lot of complicated words that he doesn't really know the meaning of, but it's qutie obvious that they're talking about their respective memories. Celal doesn't know much about Baba's life. He just knows that Baba isn't _really_ his Baba, that his actual Baba is gone, since a long time, and that Baba took him because he knew Celal's mom.

Every once in a while, the rare times when he speaks about her, Baba calls her « Abla ». Celal isn't sure whether or not it was her name, or just a nickname – Baba loves to give nicknames to people. 

Celal also knows that a long time ago, when Baba was still a very young man, something terrible happened to him. A person made themselves explode, in the middle of a mall, when Baba was in there, but the deflagration went far enough to only burn a bit of his face and body. Since then, Baba can only see through one eye – the other one is all weird, pale, with a strange color, a mix of white and brown - , and he has a bunch of wide scars, on his chest and belly, which prevents him from going to the pool in a bathing suit. Celal is used to them, so it doesn't bother him, but Baba told him that most people don't really enjoy looking at ugly scars like those, and that it was better for everyone if he hid them. To hide his eye, he doesn't use (to Celal's great disarray) a black patch, like a pirate, but instead big, tinted sunglasses that hide away a big part of his face, along with the big scar and his weird eye.

Celal also knows that Baba isn't in love with anybody, because he spends a lot of his time taking care of Celal. And that he's often alone, even though he has a lot of friends.

But, that was before.

Because even Celal, with his young age and his general misunderstanding of the world and all its facets, can see that the way Baba is holding Mr. Francis' hand, and the way that they're looking at each other, and the way that Mr. Francis has to laugh at Baba's godawful jokes -

And the way Baba isn't wearing his glasses anymore.

And the way that Mr. Francis doesn't seem phased in the least.

Celal can feel his heart swelling.

He's happy, all of a sudden. Extraordinarily happy. For Baba, but for himself, too. If Baba and Mr. Francis get married, he'll have two Babas, when he was supposed to have none. Which is wonderful.

Of course, now, he's even less tired than before. The adrenaline of the spying, mixed with this strange happiness of seeing his father so full of joy make him want to jump around, to sing his lungs out the way Baba does, and to run through the entire house. But he doesn't, because he knows that it'd be a bad idea, and that Baba probably wouldn't appreciate his attention, as good as it might be.

So he climbs back to his room. Slowly. Surely. Putting all of his energy into preventing the floor to creak. When he's back into bed, he turns on the light, takes Ploum and Bob close to him, and reads a comic that talks about love.

When he falls asleep, his hand is resting against his heart, and he's listening to its beat – and he wonders if there's someone in the world, right now, whose heart beat in the exact same way. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope that you enjoyed my little story. English isn't my first language, so I apologize for any mistake!  
> Baba = Dad, in Turkish.  
> Abla = Older sister, implying that Celal is in fact Sadik's nephew, whom he adopted as his son.  
> Kudos and comments are incredibly appreciated! <3


End file.
